


Win The War: Consanguinity

by LunaCarmesi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-12 08:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/809217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaCarmesi/pseuds/LunaCarmesi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Petunia finds Harry's adoption papers. She can finally get rid of him. From now on he lives with his father Tobias Snape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Morning at the Dursley's

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to JAWorley, justusia7850, Black Princess92 and, Luck!
> 
> Pictures of characters:)  
> http://win-the-war-lunacarmesi.tumblr.com/tagged/What-do-the-characters-in-Win-the-War%3A-Consanguinity-look-like%3B)

 

Thursday, May eighteenth 1995

It was a regular morning at Privet Drive, a day like every other day, because there was no difference between mornings in this place. As usual Petunia Dursley woke up early to make breakfast for her family. She was a women who was pleased with her life, and she found fulfillment both as a mother and as a wife.

Her husband Vernon loved her and took care that she would never run out of anything. He gave her support at the difficult moments in her life. Petunia thought that her fifteen years old son Dudley was a very special boy. In the whole neighborhood there wasn't such young man who could be compare to him. According to her, he had so much appeal and personal charm... he was incredibly handsome, friendly, and charming: a carbon copy of his father. People took to him like flies to honey, and he achieved only successes in his life. It made her smile just to think that after barely one year of boxing, that Dudley had achieved a gold medal. She was also proud that her boy had a flair for business. He has started some school project recently which has already brought profits. Believing that young business men should be supported, they'd given Dudley the amount of money his school project had earned as a reward and incentive.

Everything would be perfect, the keyword being would. Her husband, her son her life... it was all there. There was something however that was amiss in Petunia Dursley's life. A nasty little secret that weighed down on her every minute of every day: Potter. He was a freak just like his mother and that devil boy she had brought home. As far as Petunia was concerned, he was nothing more than vermin, and she wished he had the common decency to know when he wasn't wanted, and not to come home for the holidays.

Preparation of breakfast for her men took only forty-five minutes. She set the table and in the middle, she put a bouquet of flowers which she had received from Vernon just yesterday.

"Diddy Duddydums! Wake up, my dearest darling!"

Dudley heard her walking back to the kitchen. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a pile of cream rolls and a large chocolate cake, and some children continually dumped more into his desert pile. Dudley knew these punks. After all, he'd collected money from them everyday so they could breathe without fear (of others) in his school beating them to a pulp. After all... everybody knew that he had won the boxing championship; it had only served him another advantage. Admittedly he had only won the match by default, because his opponent had mysteriously fallen ill just before the competition, but Dudley didn't care about details. The medal was hanging on his wall wasn't it? That was enough for him.

After a moment, Petunia came back to his door.

"Duddy, are you up, yet? Your breakfast is ready."

"Almost." Breakfast was the only thing that was able pull him out of bed.

 

After breakfast, Vernon Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked his wife on the cheek, and ruffled Dudley's hair on the way out the door. Petunia watched happily as she was packing lunch with extra vitamins for Dudley. She had to make sure her Diddy Duddykins was healthy after all!

At a few minutes past seven, finally home alone, Petunia cleaned the kitchen thoroughly and sat by the window, where she had perfect view of the street. While reading a newspaper, she contemplated, what the celebrities must have been thinking; Niguel Pitt and his room mate (Petunia didn't approve such relationships) had adopted more children - triplets from Kongo. She almost pitied these people. Something had to be seriously wrong with every child they already had if they are looking for new ones all the time. Her's was perfect, and she would never look for another. Wondering about it, she looked out through the window, and noticed that Gabi Milton was taking a walk. The girl was wearing only miniskirt and a tight top. She had been going with Dudley in primary school, but the way she was dressing now... 

_'She's probably going to sleep around with that Macary from number 15.'_ Petunia thought indignantly. _‘To think, that her mother let her do such things, let alone dress that way!'_

Yesterday, Petunia had heard from Olivia Poskett, that Martha Perren saw, that Gabi had bought wine in town. And then Petunia could only assume that she'd gone to that boy after dark since his parents were away on business.

Petunia drank her cup of strong, black coffee and decided to do something. For the next couple of hours, nothing interesting should be happening, she thought. It had been a long time since the attic had been given a deep cleaning, so he decided to start her day there. She should consign old pieces of junk she thought. Or, it would be better if she give them away to the church... the neighbors would notice, and they would admire her generosity. Content with this prospect Petunia climbed the stairs. 

After two hours, and after sorting through a lot of unnecessary books and old clothes, there was only one box remaining. Inside she found an old journal, and curious, she opened it only to scoff. It was Lily's, that blasted sister of hers. 

_‘Of course, the whole day would spoiled by the very thought about her!'_

She was about to close and burn it, when out from the cover fell a piece of worn parchment. It was the... Birth Certificate of Harry James Potter! Her eyes went wide with astonishment. 

_‘Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad day after all.'_


	2. Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beta JAWorley - Tkanks!

**Chapter 1**

**_Surprise ****_**

"Fred, come here a moment."

Fred tugged on George's sleeve and followed Harry back into an empty train compartment as the throng of students exited around them.

"Bit suspicious," George said jokingly as he closed the door. "Do you think he intends on making us return to Hogwarts for the summer?"

Fred laughed at his brother's joke, but turned serious when he saw Harry holding out what looked like a full money pouch.

"Here, take it," Harry said. "Don't say where it came from."

"That looks an awful lot like your winnings Harry," George said, staring at the pouch. "You might not want to tempt us two jokesters with that."

"It's yours, go on."

"We can't take that Harry! You're the one that won the tournament."

"And you might have if you'd been allowed to enter. I'm telling you to take it. I don't want it. Go and start your business with it, and while I'm thinking of it, buy your brother some dress robes so he doesn't smell like mothballs next time he needs it."

"Harry, this is a lot of money."

"Yes and I'm giving it to you. You can take it or I'll toss it out the window into the crowd."

Fred reached out and took the money bag then, not daring to peer inside and believe his luck.

"You're sure about this?"

"Positive."

Then, as an afterthought, Harry withdrew a second, much lighter pouch and held it out to the twins. "Would you be able to exchange this for Muggle money and send it to me by owl?" he asked. Still looking a little shocked, George nodded and Harry hastily left the compartment before they could say another word.

Beyond the barrier to the magical platform, Uncle Vernon waited with an irritated look on his face, perhaps because Mrs. Weasley was hovering close by. When Harry got near, she hugged him tightly and pulled him close to whisper into his ear, "Dumbledore may let you stay with us later in the summer. Write and let us know how you're doing dear."

Harry nodded, but didn't say anything as Ron approached saying, "See you Harry," as he clapped him on the back.

"Bye, Harry!" Feeling overwhelmed suddenly, Harry turned to find Hermione, and turned red as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, something that hadn't happened before.

Taking a few steps back, Harry nearly bumped into George, who leaned in and said, "Harry… thanks, and we'll try to send it to you as soon as possible.

"What are you going to send?" asked Mrs. Weasley curiously, who had stepped closer to hear what George had muttered.

"Goodies for Hedwig," Harry said quickly with a wink at the twins, and then he turned to Uncle Vernon and followed him silently from the station.

xxx

With a lot of effort the skinny teenager put his trunk in the car's boot outside King's Cross Station.

"Don't dawdle! Get in boy! I don't have time for this rubbish!" shouted Uncle Vernon sitting behind the wheel.

"'m sorry" Harry answered mindlessly.

Sweaty, and finally seated in the passenger seat, his uncle shoved a stiff piece of paper at him and snapped, "Here, read it!"

Harry's eyes began to scan down the page, but then Vernon growled, "Out loud boy," and Harry started again out loud.

 

_**"Birth Certificate** _

_Name: Harry James Potter._

_Birthday: 31st July, 1980_

_Birthplace: Guildford._

_Mother's name: Eileen Snape, nee Prince._

_Father's name: Tobias Jacob Snape._

_Adopted 31st July, 1980 by Lily Rose Potter, nee Evans and James Harold Potter._

_Guardians from 1st, Novmber 1981 to 13th June, 1995 Petunia Ivy Dursley, nee Evans and Vernon Marc Dursley._

_At the request of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursley since 13th June, 1995, custody of Harry James Potter is given to birth father of the child: Tobias Jacob Snape."_

 

By the time he'd finished, Harry had gone pale, and his voice was little more than a whisper.

"It's some kind of joke… you're lying!"

"No," Vernon said, gleeful. "Petunia did cleaning in the attic and found your birth certificate. She once lived near the Snape's. We went there and it turns out that your real mother is dead, but at least your father agreed to take you. We took care of formalities and we don't have to quarrel with you anymore," finished Vernon with nasty smile. "And to think that we could have gotten rid of you so many years earlier! "I just have to bring you to him."

Uncle Vernon had never allowed Harry to speak unless told to, so the journey was silent. The silence didn't annoy Harry since the overflow his emotions was causing him a headache. He was sure that it was some trick the Dursleys had devised to finally throw him out. After all, his resemblance to James and Lily was incontestable… everyone told him so.

As if the whole lie wasn't incredulous enough, it was harder still to believe that nobody knew about the supposed adoption. From what he could remember, a pregnancy lasted for almost a year didn't it? Unfortunately he wasn't sure because when it had been taught in primary school, he had often had to spend his time in his cupboard as punishment instead of doing homework, and his science textbook had been used as material for paper airplanes and then thrown into the rubbish bin. Even onlookers would know his mum was pregnant from the huge stomach. It seemed an impossibility for friends of his parents, such as Sirius and Lupin to not notice that Lily who hadn't been pregnant would just one day show up with a baby. They would have told him if he was adopted, wouldn't they?

As they drove closer to his supposed true father's house, Harry was surprised suddenly by a sorrowful feeling emanating from his stomach. His own family really did hate him, didn't they? He had known they weren't affectionate towards him, but deep inside he'd always wanted them to accept him. For most of his life he'd dreamt of being taken from that house. Sometimes he had been of the opinion that he would feel better in the orphanage, but all of this didn't change the fact that he was simply sorry.

At the moment, he couldn't do anything about it. When they got there, he would decide what to do next. For now, he could only pray, that this Snape didn't have anything in common with the Potions Master that despised him so heartily.

xxx

After driving for nearly two hours they reached Guildford. According to the piece of paper he was holding in his hand, it was his birth place. The surroundings were pretty. There were sprawling green parks beyond the windows of the car. Despite his poor eyesight, in the distance he saw colorful playgrounds and sandbox for children. At his left, there were beautiful houses, much nicer and some more modern than what the Dursleys lived in. Each of them showcased the high standard of life their occupants lived. They drove on however, and the surroundings grew dimmer. The houses grew uglier and less colorful, and even the park gave the impression that it was bleaker.

Uncle Vernon stopped the car by a gray, two story building. The windows were old, and from behind the glass there were dusty curtains.

"Well, boy! Get out of here and take your things with you!" Vernon ordered him with a smile of bliss on his face. Vernon hurried out of the car and went to the front door to ring the bell.

The door was opened by a tall broad-shouldered man with scruffy gray hair, black eyes and large nose. He was wearing a creased flannel shirt from under which, stuck out a yellowing undershirt. Harry groaned internally. There was no way he was related to that Snape. 'It must be nightmare,' he thought.

"I brought the boy. That's all from me. And I wish not see either of you again!" laughed Vernon, not even glancing back at his nephew, who had now struggled to pull his trunk out of the rear of the car and finally succeeded. Vernon got into the car and left, leaving Harry standing on the side of the road staring after him. And despite that Harry was aware that his uncle had never liked him, the rejection hurt even more then when they were traveling. What had he really anticipated though? Certainty not a tearful and soggy goodbye.

"Hello, Harry. I'm Tobias." When the man spoke up with a low, hoarse voice, Harry could smell alcohol off him.

 _'Not a good sign,_ thought Harry', but as Tobias looked calm and relaxed, it didn't bother him much. He was used to reading body language, and currently he didn't feel threatened.

"Good morning," Harry said tentatively.

"Come along, I'll show you over, and then you're gonna unpack your things in your room."

The man turned around and went into the house, Harry following after him with Hedwig in her cage in one hand, and dragging his trunk with the other. They found themselves in rather cramped, dark hall, where Harry left his baggage. Directly opposite of him was a staircase leading to the second floor, and to the was a door probably leading to the basement.

"There's the loo," His hypothetical father said as he pointed the door at his right.

Between the staircase and loo was access to the kitchen, and it was necessary to walk through it to get to the living room. In the middle of the kitchen stood a table covered with a white and red checker tablecloth, and around it were four chairs. Three of them had thin pillows on the seat but they looked as if they hadn't been laundered for a long time. The last chair was empty, but there was piece of red tape knotted over the backrest, which told Harry that it wasn't always like that.

To the right, under the windows there were cupboards a brown cooker, a fridge and a sink. Everything was equally battered and haven't been replaced or seen any repair at least for a dozen years. An annoying buzzing came from the low, yellow fridge, which had a lot of colorful beer magnets stuck to it.

When Harry glanced to his right, he cringed. There was a door to a cupboard under the stairs. Thankfully they didn't stop there however, and they continued on into the living room, which just like the rest of house, could be described as dirty and unkempt. On the left side of entrance there was an old wooden Welsh dresser, and on the right side, just under the window there was a telly, possibly the only thing in the entire house that didn't look like it would remember World War Two. A muddy couch and two armchairs were standing like a half circle with a coffee table in between. On the wall across from kitchen, there was a door that lead to a small, bushy garden.

Afterwards, the man showed Harry the upstairs, which consisted of a narrow hall, two bedrooms and a small bathroom. His room was the same size as at the Dursleys. There was a bed, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a desk and a bookcase. Everything was old and shabby. The room was secondhand, just like he was used to growing up with the Dursleys.

"Are you hungry?" asked Tobias. "Of course, you are. You look like they were starving you in that school of yours. When you finish unpacking, come to the kitchen. I'll make a supper in the meantime." Not waiting for the response, he went down the stairs.

Harry followed after him once again to get his trunk, which was sill near the front door. With a lot of effort he dragged it upstairs and placed it between his bed and the desk and then returned for the cage with Hedwig and put it on top of the chest of drawers. He pulled his clothes from his trunk and untidily threw them into the wardrobe.

Throwing himself on the bed Harry started to think. Feeling drained, Harry wished he didn't feel bad about the Dursleys kicking him out. With the way they had treated him over the years, he didn't know why he was feeling bad. After all, he really didn't want to live with them and he was sure that anywhere would be better than at Privet Drive. He hoped that this man wasn't going to keep him in the cupboard without food as a punishment, let alone aiming at his head with frying pan, because in comparison to his aunt, Tobias was really very muscular. Provided he didn't miss, he could seriously injure Harry.

So far though, Tobias had welcomed him more than the Dursleys ever had, and at this moment was even making him supper. He didn't want to let his mind wander into darker thoughts of what life might be like here if Tobias were mean.

One more positive aspect of this situation was that he was going to start anew. Nobody knew him here. He didn't reckon that his assumed father would make everyone believe that he was going to St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. Besides there wasn't Dudley, so he was able to make some friends. And of course the twins had promised to send him money. Either way he was going to buy himself some new clothing if he were allowed. If he had still been at the Dursleys he would have told them that Sirius had given him the new clothes, but here perhaps he wouldn't have to lie.

For the time being, there was only one flaw besides the state of the house - Severus Snape. Harry didn't even want to think that he could potentially be somehow related to the dungeon bat. Notwithstanding, he was going to get a chance to become a normal teenager and he was going to use it.

xxx

"Harry, supper's ready! You can finish unpacking later!" Harry's thoughts were broken by Tobias' voice. He got up and made his way to the kitchen.

"Sit down and eat, Harry." After Tobias gave him a plate with roast, they ate in awkward silence, neither of them feeling comfortable in presence of the other yet. One would think they would have an endless number of topics to discuss, not really knowing anything about the other, but neither of them knew how to start. After the meal, Tobias got up and negligently did the dishes then made the tea for Harry and sat in one of the chairs with a bottle of beer in hand.

"What should I call you?" asked Harry.

"For the time being, Tobias, until we got to know each other better."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a builder, so most of the day I won't be at home. You'll have to occupy yourself until five o'clock, because then you'll have training. I enrolled you in a football team. You'll start on Monday."

"Yeah? What's this team?" _Pity that you didn't ask me, I think I have something to say about it,_ Harry thought, angrily that once again somebody decided for him.

"The Mayor organized a competition. The Guildford Cup for teenagers." Tobias answered. "You know, different companies collect members of teams, usually they're worker's kids, and they sponsor the matches. Thanks for that, they get promotion and some benefits, and kids have fun. You have to try to be the best. I don't want to be ashamed of you. Sons of my pals are playing there too. I'll be coming to your matches."

Despite his irritation that Tobias had made the decision for him (without ever having met him really), Harry had to smile. It was nice to have an adult who cared enough to think of him, that he might have some fun, and Tobias, for now, gave that impression. How many times as a child had he dreamed that his aunt or uncle would give him this sort of attention? Vernon had always been at Dudley's every contest, but had never thought of Harry's interests.

"But I haven't played football for couple of years, and I don't know if I'm fit for it," hesitated Harry who liked more and more the prospect of living here.

"I'm sure you'll manage. After all, you are my son. You look like your mother, so you must have something of me."

"My mother?" wondered Harry. Everyone had told him repeatedly that he was carbon copy of James, so how was it possible that suddenly he looked like Eileen Snape? Something was very wrong in here, and he had to find out what was going on.

"Yes, after all, you don't look like the postman, although with her, we may never know. Nose, mouth, chin, and cheekbones you have after Eileen. Shape of eyes and eyelashes after me. She didn't tell me anything about you. Even that she was pregnant!" grunted an irritated Tobias.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know either," said Harry, despite that he still wasn't sure about any of this.

"It's not your fault, kid. Okay, go to Bed, I'm going to. I've got work in the morning."

"Night."

"Goodnight, Harry."

xxx

Harry entered his room and opened Hedwig's cage.

"Hey girl. Do you want to fly a little?" he murmured, letting her out.

Harry went to bed and rolled back and forth because he couldn't fall asleep. Today he had been overwhelmed with too much emotion, and besides that, too many questions still went without answers. Did he really look like Eileen Snape? Tobias seemed to be okay, Harry thought. So far he'd behaved nicely… much better than the Dursleys. He'd acted just like father should, hadn't he? And what about Professor Snape? Were they related? Had he known all the time and that's why he'd hated him so much? He had in fact continuously repeated to Harry that he was just like his father. Had he meant James or Tobias?


	3. The letters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank Jaw for correcting the first part of this chapter and blackprincess92 who made corrections for second part. Without them it would be rather unreadable.
> 
> And thank you for reviews!

_Saturday, July first 1995_

 

Harry was awakened up by a severe pain in his left shoulder blade. With his eyes still shut tightly, he sat up and rubbed the sore spot. The culprit turned out to be an errant bedspring, which had been poking him in the back all night. The mattress felt thinner than usual. Harry opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings. He wasn’t in his dormitory at Hogwarts. Then without warning, the affairs from the day before suddenly came back to him with startling clarity.

“Why does it always have to be me?” groaned Harry.

The bitterness that had welled up inside him due to the Dursley’s scheming had not evaporated in the least. It still hurt to believe the Dursleys loathed him to such a degree that they would scheme something like that, just to get rid of him. The man, Tobias had also fallen victim to their plotting. Uncle Vernon had told him that Aunt Petunia had lived here during her childhood. Therefore, Harry was sure that she knew this man and for some unfathomable reason, she despised him. Harry wondered how the working-class man had managed to get under her skin. The birth certificate he had been shown didn’t totally convince him of what they had told him. Harry was very aware that his uncle had connections to people in high places and it would not take much to forge a birth certificate.

Harry also wondered if Tobias knew he was a wizard. The man didn’t mention anything when he saw Hedwig, which was rather untypical pet. Perhaps the Dursleys, despite their revulsion of the subject had told him about magic. Still, if the hook-nosed man was somehow related to his Potion Master, then he likely already knew about wizards. From what Harry was able to observe, Tobias was definitely Muggle. There were no books about magic, cauldrons, or spells in the house.

For the time being, he decided to be careful and refrain from mentioning he wasn’t exactly normal. He didn’t want to risk that he would be treated here like he had been at the Dursley’s house. Harry wasn’t going to try to tell the man he wasn’t his son. He knew that keeping this knowledge wasn’t fair to Tobias. However he didn’t want to be homeless, or land in a care home, which thanks to Aunt Petunia stories, was horrifying to him. Harry knew Sirius wanted to take him, but that was not possible as long as he was a fugitive. It was too dangerous for him to live with the Weasleys. The Burrow would be a considered target without his presence because he was friends with Ron. Even Dumbledore warned them, as Mrs. Weasley had told him in the train station. Furthermore, Harry always wanted to know how it was like to have a father. At least he could pretend for a while, and hope Tobias wouldn’t discover the truth too fast. He wanted to be treated like somebody’s true son. And if the man continued to believe that Harry is his biological son, then he was going to let his dreams come true. He also hoped that his real parents would understand and wouldn’t mind his deception too much.

It was really enticing prospective, at least for a moment, to live a life borrowed from someone else, someone who in reality didn’t exist. Life as Tobias and Eileen Snape’s son. He flinched a little, because it sounded like he was going to pretend to be the Potions Master, but it was impossible. Snape was too old to be their son. Even if Harry wasn’t sure of their ages, he was confident that it was unrealistic. He knew that pretending to be someone else was a bad idea, but being a normal teenager who had an attentive father had always his dream. Of course, he also really longed for a mother, but one can’t have everything.

After a couple of minutes, Harry went downstairs to the kitchen and noticed that Tobias was nowhere to be seen. Judging from the dirty plates dumped on the table, he’d already left for work. Harry washed the dishes and made tea, foregoing breakfast. When he felt especially nervous or stressed, he would become nauseated, unable to swallow the tiniest morsel. With a cup of tea in his hand, he went back to his room and decided to write a letter to his Godfather. He wanted to be sure that Sirius didn’t know anything about the alleged adoption.

After the third task, when Harry had been the hospital wing, his godfather had promised him that they would see each other soon, but first he had to alert the ‘old crowd.’ Harry didn’t know exactly who those were, but he remembered one name – Arabella Figg. It was the same last name as his neighbour from Little Whinging. He didn’t like her very much. In any case, he was sure she wasn’t fond of him either. She always had him look at pictures of her cats. Only one time she had pretended to be nice and she had given him stale chocolate cake. Maybe she wanted to poison him, because he had been up all night, racked with stomach pain.

Harry took out piece of parchment and quill from his trunk, and tried to figure out how to write exactly what he wanted to know. 

__

_Dear Padfoot,_

_I hope that everything is all right with you. There have been many changes here. The Dursleys kicked me out for good. They devised some tale that I’m not related to them. I know that if you and Professor Lupin had known something about this, you would have told me, right? Don’t worry, I’m fine. In fact I’m better than I was when I was there._

_Yours,_

_H._

 

He almost tied this letter to the Hedwig’s leg, when he changed his mind. He didn’t want to worry his Godfather. He was sure that after such a message, Sirius would begin to wonder about his whereabouts

Knowing his impetuous nature, he would probably make a rash decision to emerge from hiding just to see if everything was okay with Harry. Despite that the teenager did miss him; he didn’t want to endanger him. He couldn’t be selfish, so he ripped up the letter and tried once more from the beginning.

_Dear Padfoot,_

_I hope that everything all right and you are safe._

_I’d like to ask you, if you saw my mother before my birth and did look like she was about to give birth. The Dursleys mentioned that I’m not really related to them, but probably it is anoth…_

He was about to write: another way to bully him, but he didn’t want to whine and make himself out to be a victim. He noticed couple of times that Sirius had looked at him in strangely, when he was talking about the Dursleys. Not that Harry said anything significant, but once or twice he said something without thinking. He saw in Sirius’ body language, that he had been getting angry. Not wanting to annoy him more, the teenage swiftly changed topic, and after a moment, the man relaxed, like he had completely forgot what Harry had been saying.

Harry erased the last sentence and wrote:

_Of course it could be just empty words._

_Greet Moony,_

_Best wishes,_

_H._

 

He hoped that it sounded natural enough and not disturbing. He tied the letter to the owl’s leg.

“Hedwig, could you carry this to Sirius?” asked Harry, and the owl lightly pecked him on the finger in answer.

Afterwards, he decided to take a shower and go for a walk to explore his new surroundings. The day before Tobias had given him keys to the house. Harry felt this was a really nice surprise and sign of trust. In this little gesture the man had really made him feel welcome. Harry made a face, realizing that Privet Drive had never been his home.

There wasn’t bathtub in the bathroom, just a shower, toilet, an old cabinet and washbasin. The bathroom had dark yellow, cracked tiles. It wasn’t attractive, but it was tolerably clean. He was surprised, when he found on the shelf, a woman’s flowery smelling shower soap. Was it possible that Tobias hadn’t thrown it out after his wife died? In fact, Harry didn’t really know how long she had been dead. Actually he knew completely nothing neither about Tobias nor his family, other than the fact he was somehow related to Harry’s Potions Master. In any case, he hoped that their relationship wasn’t good, and his teacher would never visit them or find out that Harry lived there.

After a quick shower, he put on his best clothes: almost undamaged trousers and t-shirt, which had once belonged to Fred. The redhead had misplaced the clothes somewhere in the Burrow, and when they were found in Charlie’s room they were still in really good condition. They were too small for Ron, so Harry inherited them. Harry, of course, was thrilled, because his clothes were increasingly unpresentable. The clothes that he inherited from Dudley was from year to year bigger (his cousin grew twice as fast as he, both in widthways and high), so he was really grateful when Ron gave him clothes, which he outgrew. Despite that they also were rather worn, because redhead wasn’t their first owner, they were had much better condition than things after Dudley.

Spinner’s End was located between a river and a big, green park, which seclude the neighbourhood from the rest of town. It looked utterly like a slum. Houses were grey and unsightly. Children, who were running around the street reminded him of himself from when he was little – dirty, unkempt, in worn t-shirts and sweats, but as opposed to him, they were laughing and playing with each other. Had had never had any friends. On the playground that was located at the center of the park in one moment he could tell apart little habitants of Spinner’s End from the others – the children from good homes: fashionable, colourful and clean dressed. One could also differentiate them from their behaviour. Some were playing completely carelessly, not knowing hunger or fear, and the others behaved like they would experience short moments of happiness, then came the grim reality. The view of the seemingly happy children playing distressed Harry a bit.

He sat at the farthest from playground swing set, which was located under huge, rank weeping willow and looked around. He noticed a couple of teenagers around his age passing by. He observed their style of clothes. He felt a little stupid inspecting them like that, but he wanted to know what stuff he should buy, after the twins sent him the money. He wanted to be able to blend in. Sitting alone emptiness overcame him like it usually did in Little Whinging. 

After a while he came back home and decided to cook dinner. He wanted to make Tobias glad that he lived there. He was going to show him that he was useful. Maybe the man would even like him a little as Harry, and not just pretend to like him because he thinks he has to. The teenager wanted to show the best side of himself. Maybe then… Maybe then Tobias would know the truth and decide to keep him. Harry shook his head wanting to break out of nostalgic thoughts.

Sitting alone emptiness overcame him like it usually did in Little Whinging.

After a while he came back home and decided to cook dinner. He wanted to make Tobias glad that he lived there. He was going to show him that he was useful. Maybe the man would even like him a little as Harry, and not just pretend to like him because he thinks he had to. The teenager wanted to show the best side of himself. Maybe then… Maybe then Tobias would decide to keep him even after he learned the truth. Harry shook his head wanting to break out of nostalgic thoughts. 

He decided to prepare vegetable soup, from things which he found in the fridge. After he'd eaten a little, he laid down on couch and turned on the TV. At the Dursley’s such behavior would be inconceivable. There he was an unwanted freak, whose company was undesired, and when he was alone, he wouldn't be allowed to waste electricity just to watch TV by himself. Here on the other hand, this didn't seem to be the case yet.

A few hours later, Tobias came home with two co-workers. Both of whom were well built. The first one was blond and of average height, and the second one was taller with red, dingy hair.

“Harry, meet Ralf and Sam, my good buddies.” said Tobias None of them was sober.

"Uh… Hi.”

“Who’s that? You didn’t mention that you had a kid?” said the taller one named Sam. 

“That’s ‘coz Eileen gave him up, and now I’ve got to take care of him,” burbled Tobias. “Harry go upstairs, study something.”

“It’s the holidays” pointed out the teenager.

“So go out, find some friends, or go to sleep and don’t disturb us coz we’re gonna talk ‘bout important stuff,” Tobias responded. 

“Yeah, like how our fucking boss is the cheapest bitch in town.” interjected Ralf tipsily. 

“I made dinner, maybe I can put some on the table for you guys?” asked Harry, wanting his efforts to be noticed by Tobias.

“No thanks, the boss provides us with dinner. You’d think that he dived into his own pocket! Not a chance. He’s getting a tax break or somethin’.” said Tobias

“Geez, Tobias, you’ve got him trained, maybe we’ll exchange.” laughed Sam.

Harry turned red with embarrassment. “Yeah, for now he's good, and if he starts to be a lil' bitch I’ll chasten him.” Tobias turned to Harry. “And you was due to be runnin' along." Harry nodded and went upstairs, deciding to go to sleep. 

He was tired, not physically, but emotionally. He wasn’t going to bother himself that his plan with dinner had fallen through, or Tobias’ comment about chastening him, because he was going to behave perfectly so the man wouldn’t have a cause for that. Before he went to the bed, he turned the mattress to the other side, hoping that it would be more comfortable that way. 

 

_Sunday, July 2nd 1995_

Harry was woken up by tapping on the window. He rose from bed and noticed two owls sitting on the window sill. The first had a letter tied to its leg, and the second a package. He opened the window to let the birds in, and then he untied the parcels and gave the owls some water and treats. He was almost about to open the letter when he heard Tobias call him from downstairs.

“Harry come here!”

"Five minutes!” he shouted back. 

He hoped the letter was from Sirius. He was exasperated and couldn’t wait to read it.

“Now, damn it!" He sighed heavily. 

Reminding himself that he'd promised to be obedient, so that the man would like him, Harry decided it was too early to make any kind of trouble.

"I’m coming!” he shouted, once more looking at the letters with a wishful glance before turning around and rushing downstairs, jumping down two steps at a time.

In the living room he spotted Tobias lying on the couch alongside empty vodka bottles and dirty dishes. The smell wasn't pleasant. Harry made a face, but decided not to comment.

"Yes?”

“When I call you, you'd better hurry in here.” the man snapped. "Not five minutes, not a moment. Now! Do you understand?”

“Yes sir. Sorry,” Harry answered, swearing inwardly at his stupidity. “Won’t happen again.”

“Better not,” said Tobias, seeming a little appeased.

“Is there something you wanted?”

“Go to the store and buy three beers for me. Make sure they're already chilled.” As an afterthought, he added:  
“And something to eat. If you want you can buy yourself a chocolate bar. Money's in my jacket. Only hurry... I’ve got headache.”

“Caused by alcohol?” asked Harry. 

“You know hair of the dog. Go!” he snapped.

Line break At the store, Harry was surprised that he didn’t have problems buying alcohol. A new supermarket had been built nearby, and the smaller shops, wanting to survive, didn’t really concern themselves with how that got business from. Selling alcohols to minors was bringing in a tidy profit, especially in a neighborhood like this one.

Harry came back, put away the shopping, made a cheese sandwich, and hurried to his room to finally read the letters that had come that morning.

 

__  
“Dear Mr. Potter,  
Regarding the latest events, which took a place in June, I would like to offer you training. You can also count on any help you may require. If you are interested, I propose a meeting at St. Stephen's Tavern in London, at a date and hour of your convenience in the following week. As this area is near Buckingham Palace, it is area one can't apparate to and portkeys do not work there either, so you don’t have to be afraid.  
I look forward to hearing from you  
Best regards,  
Ghost" 

Harry’s eyes went wide with astonishment, which made them look almost comically big as his face was much too skinny to begin with. On one hand the letter could be a trap, but on the other – he really needed additional training. He hadn't ever had good teacher in defense, with the exception of Professor Lupin, who taught more about creatures and how to incapacitate them, than about fighting Death Eaters. 

Dumbledore seemed as if like he didn’t care about the deplorable state of Defense education at Hogwarts. Most certainly he could employ some Auror, or one of his acquaintances who was at least competent in this field. Most fourth years were better than Lockhart had been. Dumbledore knew that the man had been stealing memories and selling them. He hadn’t had any qualms about it. How could the headmaster let him work in the school? Lockhart didn’t know anything about defense, and so he certainly couldn’t teach it. And there was also the strong possibility that he was casting Oblivates on the students, which of course nobody would remember. The next example of a worse than horrible teacher was Quirrell, who had Voldemort on the back of his head. At least Barty Crouch Junior had taught them something, and if not for the little detail of Harry almost having gotten killed because of him, he would have been one of the best teachers and that was saying something. 

Potter hoped that now, after Voldemort had come back (He flinched when he thought about the circumstances of how that came about), Dumbledore would come to his senses and hire a proper DADA’s teacher. Maybe he would even organize some additional lessons. Harry glanced one more time at the piece of parchment in his hand. He knew that he shouldn’t agree, despite the fact that practicing magic during the summer was a very tempting proposition. Defense was his favorite subject, and he learned those spells very quickly and without much effort. He hadn’t had to put even half of the work into it unlike how he did in Transfiguration for example. He was also very curious, but he decided not to take the risk, despite his instinct, (which was rarely incorrect) prompting him to make the other decision. He took out clean parchment and wrote:  
 __  
Mr. Ghost,  
Thank you for your offer, but unfortunately I have to decline. To be honest, I don’t know you, and your precautions didn’t really convince me. I don’t know if that anti-apparating area really exists, and I am not able to inspect it.  
Best regards,

_Harry Potter  
_

He was proud of himself. He knew that he often didn’t make such sensible decisions. He noticed that his words sounded a little discourteous, but he ignored it and tied the letter to the owl’s leg.

Next he opened the package. It was from the twins. There was a letter, money and some other strange things.  
 _  
Dear co-owner our micro corporation,_

_We are sending you the money you requested. We are really grateful with your financial support you saved us a couple years of work in which we would have had to gather capital for a start. Because of that we’re giving you a thirty-three percent share in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. We're going to send you the prototypes of our products, too._  
Don’t even thing about refusing, because otherwise we will disrupt your peaceful… eee… okay maybe not so peaceful, life at Hogwarts into one with even less peace (with the help of our gadgets).  
In the box, there are:  
Extendable Ears – for eavesdropping.  
Two Self Inking Quills – We hope that it will help people to be able to read your messy messages writing.  
And our newest stuff. For now it's only a prototype in the testing phase: Communicational Parchments. We’ve got one half and you have the other. You write the message on the green one, and we’ll be able see what you wrote on the blue one. And it works the same way when we write something to you. For now after you’ve written on all of the parchment you have to throw them out (or better – to burn them so somebody undesirable won’t find them). We’re in the process of trying to make them reusable. We also want them to be able to connect with more than one person. 

_Once again, thanks Co-owner of our business. If you will have an idea about some new product, then don’t hesitate to write to us._  
Take care!  
Gred and Forge  


 

Besides Ron and Hermione, the twins were Harry’s most favorite people at Hogwarts. Sometimes he had the impression that they treated him more like a brother than they did to Ron. He was probably to only person around them that didn’t fall prey to their pranks, and they had yet to humiliate him. The twins only sometimes teased him a little, but never in a mean way. 

He took the parchment and decided to try it at once.

 _'Hello'_ he wrote _'Are you seeing this?'_

For couple of minutes nothing happened, then suddenly the blue piece of parchment twinkled and slowly words began to show.

_'Yes, we are. Glad that you've got our package, and that our super product is working well'_

_'What’s up? Everything’s alright? Have you heard something new about Voldemort? What is he doing? Have you heard something about his plans?'_

_'Aaaa! Harry, those are the scariest nine letters that we've read in our whole life. Don’t write it ever again!'_

_'I told you to stop that, it’s just a word'_ responded Harry rolling his eyes.

 _'Easy for you to said, but let’s not waste the parchment on that. Dumbledore is at the Burrow now. He told us not to send you any owls, because they could be intercepted.'_ Harry got annoyed reading that. _'Fortunately, we’ve got these communicators, so we don’t have to worry about intercepting the state secrets, which are everything that the Boy-Who-Lived says. Nobody is able to fake your scrabbling'._

_'Very funny. But straight to the point, what do you know?'_

_'Did you hear that Dumbledore was gathering the old crowd? They call themselves the Order of the Phoenix, they fight against Death Eaters. You-Know-Who is silent, and is gathering supporters. He’s taking advantage of the fact that the Minister is denying his return._  
And how are YOU? We hope you aren’t beating yourself up over what happened at the Third Task, too much? We’ve told Dumbledore that you are too emotional to leave alone, especially at the Dorsey’s, but he didn’t agree to let you come to the Burrow. You know, technically he is just the headmaster and shouldn’t have any say in where are you staying during the summer. If anything happens, write us, we are seventeen now, we will help you no matter what.'  
  
Harry really felt grateful, and for a moment deliberated over whether he should tell them about his current position, he was sure that they would never betray him.

_'I’m fine. There were a lot of changes, but I will tell you when we will meet. There is not enough parchment at the moment.'_

_'You would say that you’re fine if you were on the bed dying. We hope that those changes are for the better at least?'_ The message showed up after a moment.  
 _‘Yes, they are'_ Harry wrote.

_'We’ve got to go, mom’s been calling us for 5 minutes and you know how she is. Take care of yourself, Harry.'_

_'See you'_

Annoyed a little by the Headmaster, who wanted Harry to be alone and without any information, he went to take a shower.

 

He thought once more about morning letter from Ghost, but he knew that meeting him would be irresponsible. He put on his clothes, and went downstairs.

Tobias has been up already with a beer in his hand. He was cleaning up after yesterday’s guests.

“Harry, it’s good that you are here already. I was just going to call you” said Tobias when he saw him standing on the doorstep to the living room.

“Take your stuff to the basement”

“What?” asked a surprised Harry, flinching a little.

_So, it's going to be the same as the Dursleys after all._

“Take every one of your things that are strange to the basement” he put an accent at the last word. “Your mother had a room there where she kept her preternatural things, just in case somebody came to visit us. Your ministry is trying to hide magic, right?”

“Oh… Okay” he said, despite the fact that he didn’t like it, it did make. He didn’t know anyone here, and believed that Tobias’ friends could come into would his room.

“You’ll find there some of Eileen's old stuff. You can look through them. I chased away Severus, before he could get much out of there, but with some he succeeded. I told him that I would inform your government about him if he touched anything else.

“Severus?” asked Harry.

”Yes. Don’t you know? I have an older son.” The men's face darkened. “It’s wasting time talking about him. Such a wimp. It seemed that he had some problems with your ministry, because as soon as I threatened him, he went white, and didn’t show up again.

“But why did you need those things for?” he asked, terrified that his teacher was Tobias’ son. At least it was a low possibility that the Potions Master would ever show up here.

“I? Nothing, but I said, that if he cleared out and didn’t show any appreciation that we raised him up, he won’t get anything. Go now. We’ll talk later.

Astonished, Harry went upstairs for his things. He has another piece of proof that this adoption was one, big, fat lie. Harry Potter being the brother of Snape was impossible. He flinched at that horrible thought.

Every magical item except the invisibility cloak, photo album, and his wand were thrown into the trunk. He carefully pulled hid trunk down the stairs, careful not to drag it down.

At first glance one could see that the basement wasn’t visited by anyone too often. In every corner there were thick spider webs. The walls were bare and dirty. On the floor lay plenty unused things and old furniture thrown here without any order. On the opposite side of the room was the door. Guessing that it led to the room were his current guardian stored memorabilia of his late wife, he entered without hesitation. There weren’t any windows, so he searched for a light switch, found one, and turned it on. The room was as dingy as the rest of the house, but unlike the other spaces of the house, Harry could feel there magic in the air in the room. Looking at the shelves he noticed that there were only a handful of books left on the shelf; Snape must have gotten away with most of them.. Opening the cupboards he saw that it was full of potions ingredients. Some were dry and seems to be alright, but others were covered in mildew and white fuzz. At the sight Harry made a disgusted face.

On the table lay two cauldrons, one pewter and the other was silver. A couch was located in front of the door and in the corner and was a black trunk with a silver snake engraved on the lid. He approached it and tried to get it opened, but it wouldn’t budge for him. Not seeing anything else worth looking at, he went back upstairs.

He decided to help Tobias cook dinner and clean a little. There was a pleasant ambiance while they worked. Tobias told him a little about the neighborhood. There was just one thing that disturbed Harry a little and that was when they finally sat down to eat, Tobias had already finished his third beer.

“What happened to your wife?” asked Harry boldly.

“Your mother?” Harry barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes, astonished at how the man could be so naïve. “She died not long after your birth. And I had to pay for the funeral despite the fact that she left me.

“Oh” Harry thought for a moment on how to direct the conversation to the subject of the Potions Master in order to find something more about their relationship. “And from then on you lived alone?” 

“No. I’ve had couple of woman, who lived with me. Of course not all at once,” he added clearly pleased with himself. Harry winced; he preferred not to know that bit of information.

“And how is your relationship with Sna… uh, Severus?” the Gryffindor faltered a little.

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m curious. I’d like to know if I have to prepare myself for a visit from him in the future.”

 

He had to be sure that the Head of Slytherin would never visit his father, and if he did, Harry had to make sure to be absent. 

“I don’t have any contact with him. Your brother is an ungrateful, arrogant bugger” Harry with an effort stopped himself from smiling, feeling a small satisfaction. Snape had called Harry those words on numerous occasions. “He moved out when he was eighteen. He lives nearby though. Sometimes I meet him in the shop or when I’m out. I took care of him for years, paid for his school, and he pretends that he doesn’t know me,” complained Tobias. “Perhaps I made some mistakes with him, but that doesn’t entitle him to completely ignoring me, don’t you agree?” he continued. “I hope that you grow up to be a proper man”

“You can count on me” Harry assured him, feeling horrible that he was so cynically cheating the man. “I didn’t know the school had to be paid for?” added after a moment.

“Of course it does”

“Oh…”

Harry was sure that the Dursleys didn’t paid for him. The money had to come from his vault in the Gringotts.

 _Or from some special fund for the Children-Who-Lived,_ he thought bitterly.

Of course he hoped that the former was true. He didn’t want to be in debt to someone.

Besides that, payment for the school had to be the reason why the Weasleys didn’t have much money, because for a nine months no one but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley lived at the Burrow and it wouldn’t be hard to save some money while the children were away at school.

“And speaking of which, how do you like your school?” asked Tobias.

“It’s really great. I love Hogwarts. You know it’s like the home I’ve never really had.”

“But now you have”

“Yes” Harry smiled stiffly. It would be nice to have a place, which he could call a home. He really loved Hogwarts, but always wanted to have somewhere where he could be back at Christmas, or holidays, just like his friends.

“Do you have any friends?” Your brother wasn’t well-liked at school. Even now I don’t think that he has many friends, at which I’m not surprised.”

Harry would truly like Tobias to stop calling the Potions Master his brother. It was rather frustrating. The greasy git as his brother? Brrr. He shuddered inwardly. He didn’t even want to think about it. 

“Of course I have. Ron and Hermione are my best mates. They’re great. We do almost everything together. With Ron we usually play chess or Quidditch. He is a huge fanatic, he could talk all day about his favourite team,” Harry smiled thinking about the obsessive redhead. “Hermione on the other hand, is the bookworm type. She is always nagging us to do our homework and study,” he finish rolling his eyes.

“How does she “nag” you?” the man asked annoyed “You can’t start to study by yourself, you need some wench to force you to do your homework?” 

Harry didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to lie, but he also didn’t want to make Tobias angry at him. He knew that he wasn’t the best in class. He was rather mediocre, especially with history. If not Hermione, he would barely pass. Anyway, it wasn’t Tobias’ business.

“It’s not like she’s forcing us.” It was partly true, if he really didn’t want to, he wouldn’t do his homework. It was not like she held them under Imperius. “She just doesn’t stop talking about homework and books.

“While we’re on the subject, how are your grades?

“Fine….”

Most of his grades were Acceptable. The fact that he has a Dreadful in Potions, and in History he barely had a Poor, wasn’t too important. Besides it was commonly known that Snape wouldn’t give him anything better even for a million galleons. He did got two Exceeds Expectations in DADA and Care of Magical Creatures. Besides it’s not like he couldn’t do the spells, he just didn’t think that theory was really worth wasting time on. His grades were his business.

“Just fine? In that case you should try harder. I’m not going to let you embarrass me. If you have to go that school, I want top marks. Not like Severus. Some quarterly letters were so bad that he was ashamed to show himself at home. But I taught him a lesson a couple of times, and his grades improved.

“What quarterly letters? Was Snape a bad student?” asked Harry. 

Maybe that was the reason he took it out on them in Potions.

Perhaps he get his own back on them for his fiascos. In his head appeared an image of Goyle with greasy hair and hooked nose and an exploding cauldron. Harry sneered a little. Okay, maybe he taking it too far. It pained him to admit it, but he had to grant that as ugly as he is, Snape wasn’t obtuse; he was even the opposite. Maybe he was lazy? Harry was sure that Severus was very good at Defence, Potions, and Herbology. Considering that he was a Potions Master and wanted to teach DADA, Snape obviously wasn’t bad at these subjects. He had to be poor at some other subject.

“The letters containing grades, progress reports, and behaviour of the child, are sent in December, March, and June. As to Severus’ marks, they weren’t the worse but certainly didn’t suffice. Severus used to give excuses that somebody stole his homework before lessons, so that he couldn’t turn it in. I’m sure he was lying just to get away scot-free. And what did he take? History, Arthimancy , Runes, just acceptable? Eileen told me that Arthimancy is something like Mathematics. That dunce could do better. He was just lazy, and ungrateful. After all the hard work we had to do to pay for his education and he didn’t give a shit about it. That was the last time he got such bad grades. After that he tried a little harder. You see with a boy like him you have to use an iron hand. His mother always defended him and connived too much, so he got lazy. Yes, the fourth year was the last time he got such lousy grades.

Harry gulped. If Tobias thought that those was bad marks, then he didn’t want to know what he would think about his own marks. He really didn’t want to be grounded for the rest of his life. He was sure that Snape had had to sit in his room for the entire holiday and study. At least it wasn’t in a cupboard, and probably he got some food.

“The Dursley’s didn’t mention anything about any letters”

“From what I can see, you are a really polite boy. I’m sure that you got good grades and you didn’t make any trouble.” Harry really doubted that. They probably just burnt them without even reading them. “But how else did you imagine the school communicated with parents? Parents have to know what’s happening to their children through the year. 

The rest of the day Harry spent with Tobias. The man taught him how to play poker, and then they watched TV. It was a really good day. But somewhere in his mind there was still the little though that it truly didn’t belonged to him, that it was all just a lie. He tried to banish the thought.


	4. Oasis, Roo and Pele

__  
Monday, July third 1995  
  
He was once again at the cemetery, bound tightly to the tomb of Tom Riddle Senior. Before him, the unmoving body of Cedric Diggory hovered in the air. The pale face was only a couple of inches from his own and the dead, emotionless eyes stared at him numbly, petrifying him so badly that he couldn't avert his eyes.

Harry woke up in a silent scream, face beaded with sweat. He sat up quickly in bed gasping for air.

 _It was only a dream,_ he repeated inwardly, trying to calm himself despite knowing that it wasn't true. The sense of guilt was eating him alive. If only he hadn't been so stubborn that day and hadn't insisted on sharing the cup... he shook his head hard, trying to eradicate painful thoughts.

Harry went to the bathroom, took shower, got dressed and decided to go to the department store, located in the town centre. That day, he was going to have his very first football practice which Tobias had signed him up for. He wanted to show up looking his best, and knew that in the clothes he actually owned he probably did look like an incurably criminal boy just as the Dursleys had always said. He knew that it was a little shallow, because clothes do not make the man, but first impressions are important.  
Farther down the street Harry felt lame as if he were a small child in primary school again, being left out and unwanted on any team. He didn’t want to be left standing in the middle of the field staring at his shoes again. He was aware that there was no Dudley here so nobody would browbeat his peers to stay away from him, and nobody would measure him by a tower of lies spread by the Dursleys, but he still hadn't have any guarantee that the teenagers here would accept him. Though he was sure that the more similar he was the more accepted he would be.

He took the bus into town, and when he entered to the department store, he felt intimidated by the amount of small boutiques. Despite that the area was as big as Hogwarts; it didn’t give him any sense of security. At school dimness prevailed meaning that he could easily blend with the crowd of students in black robes, or hide in some shadowed corner in the hall. Here everything was bright and spacious, with glazed lifts and shop fronts, making him feel vulnerable, as though not sheltered with anything. From every side, he was on display. Besides he'd never been in such elegant and modern place and he felt that he didn't fit in there. Barely in the entrance, a security guard fixed him with a glare, looking at him as contemptuously as though he would throw him out in a moment, but he didn't say anything and Harry was grateful for that.

He entered the first shop where there were typical teenage clothes hanging in the window display, though when he got inside he was overwhelmed by the enormous amount of choices. Harry wasn’t sure where to start or even if there was a place to try clothes on, but fortunately a young saleslady offered to help. He told her that all of his things had burned in a house fire and asked her to pick everything out for him. Nearly everything she gave him to try on was loose fitting. He would have thought that after years of wearing Dudley’s old enormous rags that he would be used to it. These clothes weren’t overly large like Dudley’s though, it was just the style. At least it would give him a chance to hide his boney frame.

According to the sales woman, if he wore something close-fitting he wouldn’t fit in as much. After he’d paid for the new wardrobe (which had killed his wallet), they gave him a cap because he’d purchased so much.

Afterwards he went to find a shop with eyeglasses. He picked up the cool ones with rectangular frames, and it just so happened that he was able to see better in these than in his old ones without even seeing the eye doctor. He asked at the counter for contact lenses with the same prescription, thinking that these would help him play both Quidditch and football better.

Back at home it took Harry nearly an hour to get the contact lenses in, and he cursed the entire time, wondering what had possessed him to buy plastic and try to dig it into his eyes. When he finally got them in though, he didn’t feel them at all. He quickly got dressed in his new clothes, took the new backpack, and put on the baseball cap. Thanks to the cap and lack of glasses, he thought it would be hard to spot him as Harry Potter at all in a crowd. At least he wouldn’t have to be afraid of being recognized in public. He smiled a little and went out for practice. It was only for o’clock, and the field wasn’t that far away from where they were as Tobias had said. He still wanted to be there a little early.

After a guard showed Harry to the changing room, he found two boys sitting inside on a bench. Both of them were big and well built. The tall blond boy was putting a t-shirt on and the second boy, who was eating a hot dog, had a tattoo on his arm and a black eye. Harry’s stomach grumbled at the sight of the hot dog. He’d forgotten to eat today because he’d been too absorbed in his thoughts and task of getting ready. Now he was starting to realize just how hungry he really was.  
"Bon appétit!" he said politely, despite the fact that the other boys didn’t look like they knew what manners were. They definitely weren’t Hermione’s type.  
"And why the fuck do you care?" spat the bald one.

"Cut it out, Oasis. Do you have any manners? Can't you see that the guy is new?" The blond boy gave him a dressing-down, and then turned to Harry. "I'm Roo, and this is Oasis. Don't mind that that idiot. I don't know who released him." He held out his hand to shake Harry's.

"Just you watch it boy!" the bald one snapped at him, making Roo roll his eyes. 

"I'm Harry" he took his hand.

"What d'ya want in here?” asked Oasis, eyeing him. 

"I'm here for football practice," he responded.

"Aren't you too young? How old are you anyway?" he asked skeptically.

"Enough" chafed Harry. It seemed that it would be hard to find some pleasant company this summer. "Is there any age restriction?"

"Don't blow smoke up my ass, you've got to be at least fourteen to be on the team" 

"Well, I'm almost fifteen, thank you very much" said the agitated young wizard.

"Yeah right" replied Oasis shaking his head.

"So you’re on our team?" asked Roo.

"I guess. The guard showed me this changing room,” answered Harry, and he turned and started getting changed. 

"Aren't you beefy?" Oasis said ironically with a laugh, scrutinizing him. "Don't they feed you at home?”

Harry blushed and quickly changed his t-shirt. It's not like he could do anything about his appearance.

"At least I'm not a tub of lard" he said, thinking about Dudley.

True, he was often hungry as a child, but he would rather be hungry than look like Dudley.

"Wow, so sarcastic," Oasis mocked.

"Who are you from" Roo changed awkward topic, noticing embarrassment of the new boy, who really look like he was malnourished. 

"What do you mean, 'who am I from'?"

"How did you get here, who signed you up for this team, or easier: who in your family works at East Build?" said Roo, once again rolling his eyes. 

"Father" This word really did sound strange in his mouth. Despite that, he had to pretend even here. "Tobias Snape."

"That... he's fucking my aunt. It make us almost cousins, doesn't it?" said an amused Oasis. "I didn't know that he had a second kid."

Harry widened his eyes at him, disgusted. He didn't see anything funny in that.

"I didn't know that he had second son either," he repeated, deciding not to comment the first part of his declaration. 

"How could you not know it?" wondered Roo.

"It's complicated. Are you also children of workers?" he asked trying to avoid any more conversation about his fake family ties.

"Yeah, but you know I'm just a common plebeian, and this is a fat cat. You know... The supervisor's son" said Oasis.

"Back off," said Roo.

Just then some more boys entered the changing room. One of them approached Harry, Roo and Oasis. He was a slant-eyed, grinning boy. With a little irritation Harry noticed that he was also taller than him by a head.

"Hiya, guys! What's up!" asked a hoarse voice.

"Hiya, we're good. This is Harry, he’ll be on the team.

"Hi" Harry held his hand.

"Wotcher! Call me Pele." He reached out and shook his hand. "Are you good? What's your placing? What's your favorite team?" At once, Harry associated him with Ron, but instead of Quidditch, it was football.

"Whoa, slow down a little." laughed Roo.

"I haven’t played for several years and I don't have any favorite team. I'm cheering for the representation." he said evasively. He didn't want to acknowledge that he just knew a couple of team names, and nothing about players.

"Of course, the patriot, But I'm telling you, Manchester is the best. Just in the last year they beat Ipswich Town nine to null! And Andy Cole scored five goals alone! It was awesome! 

Roo rolled his eyes; it seemed his habit, and firmly said, "Okay, guys. Let's go, we're starting soon." Then he added quietly, so only Harry could hear, “I had to stop him, coz he can talk like that for hours."

Fortunately, Harry's fear that he would be left alone in the centre of field didn't come true, because the coach was choosing teams. The captain of one team was Oasis, which had Roo, Pele and four other guys. The captain of the second - where Harry had landed - was Dredd, a tall, handsome, dark haired boy.

"You, Dolly," Dredd pointed at him. “Have you ever played football?" he asked doubtfully.

"A couple times" mumbled Harry, displeased that he looked at him that way.

"What's your placing?"

"I don't know, we're just kicking ball." To be honest, Harry didn't have any idea even what placings there were, and he was aware that he was looking more and more like an idiot.

"Okay, you’ll be on left defense, try not to fuck up too much" he told him irritated.

Fortunately, later Harry showed everyone what he could do, and after the first half Dredd decided that because of Harry's outstanding speed, he should by on the left wing, helping at both attack and defense. Despite the fact that his technique wasn't good, the coach and the captain, who really wanted to beat Oasis, were pleased with Harry’s skill.

"Well, despite that pretty face of yours, you don't play like a sissy," Dredd said as they walked down the field.

Harry didn’t know if that was an insult or a compliment so he just answered, "thanks, I guess."

"Shortie, you’re not bad yourself" Oasis congratulated him as he approached with Roo and Pele.

"Thanks" Harry turned to them. 

"Don't tell me that you’re mixed up with those dropouts from Spinner's End," jeered Dredd.

"Watch out what you are talking, or I’ll curry that pretty face, you faggot," snapped Oasis.

"Don't you see? Such low class. He can't even talk properly," Dredd said condescendingly. 

"I just met them today, and I think they're alright," Harry said hesitantly.

"Alright? Everybody knows that his old man got out of the can two years ago and now guzzles everything, and his mother had to become a whore, so she could buy him some second hand clothes.

At Dredd’s comment, Oasis, who despite his name wasn't an oasis of serenity, fell on Dredd with his fists.

"Stop that, whelps!" Shouted the obese guard, who was making his rounds. He run to the boys and started to pull them apart, and after a moment the coach joined him.

"Have you already started?!" Shouted the coach. “We haven’t even begun the season yet, and you already acting like you want to be kicked out? One more warning and I'll write to your fathers. And tomorrow you’ll be starting practice with fifteen laps, and I'm going to count them. Run along!

When the guard and coach walked away, Dredd spoke up again.

"You aren't going to round with these paupers?" He asked Harry. 

It seemed that life was never going to be easy for Harry. Why couldn’t people just stop fighting with each other? Already, Harry was being forced to make a choice between the two boys despite the fact that he had only known these people for just two hours. This situation was already beginning to resemble his first trip on the Hogwarts Express.

"You know, I really don't care if somebody has or doesn't have money or who their parents are." Harry responded. 

It was true. Living with Dursleys, Harry never had a penny. He grew up believing that his mother was a whore and his dad drunk. Despite the fact that he was exactly thrilled about the prospect of befriending Oasis because of his attitude, he didn’t want to be a hypocrite if he didn’t. “So no, I don't see any reason, not to hang out with them.” 

_At least Pele and Roo are pleasant enough, Harry thought._

"Course, just don't get surprised when he will whim your flash shoes and flog them at some fair. He's just like his father." he didn't waited for the replay, just turn around and go away.

"I hate that asshole," Pele made a face.” Okay, so back to Manchester, did you hear that there’s going to be an auction this Saturday? They will bid the 1908 poster with the players on it. That’s the year they won the championship for the first time. I wonder how much it’ll sell for.

Roo just shook his head, while Oasis still stood with clenched fists and blood dropping from his chin.

"You know Shortie, all in all you’re alright," said Oasis as he turned towards Harry.

XXX

After coming back home, Harry wasn't very surprised to see Tobias with a beer in hand and lying on the couch.

"Hi, I'm back" he said, announcing his presence.

"A teacher from your school was here, and left a letter for you," slurred Tobias pointing at the opened parchment laying open the coffee table.

"Why did you read my post!" shouted Harry, extremely irritated. After the episode with the Hogwarts letters at the Dursleys before his eleventh birthday, and then with Dobby, Harry couldn't stand it when somebody even touched his mail.

"Watch who you’re talking to like that! I'm your father and you have to respect me. I have every right doing whatever I want with your letters." He threw the letter at Harry. “Don’t rattle my cage. Take your hook upstairs!" snapped the angry man.

"You don't have the right to read it! Haven’t you ever heard about the right to private correspondence?!" Harry, simmering with anger picked up his letter from the floor.

“I said go upstairs, whelp! Don't make me stand up and make you, or you'll be very sorry" Tobias threatened but didn't move from couch.

Harry turned around angrily and stalked up to his room, slamming the door. He didn't even know how lucky he was that Tobias was too tired to react.

_How dare he!_

Harry kicked his trunk in anger, but soon regretted it when his foot throbbed in pain. 

_Nobody has any right to touch my letters!_

He threw himself on the bed, but after a moment he calmed himself. He angered Tobias over a stupid letter. He hoped that, after this Tobias wouldn't want to get rid of him. 

Harry didn't know what had gotten into him. Why couldn’t he have kept quiet? He wouldn't dare talk like that to his Uncle Vernon. Although, Harry remembered, he did jump on Uncle Vernon’s back on the spur of the moment when his Hogwart’s letters had come. His uncle had been so busy trying to hide the letters that he hadn't even punished him.

The Snape temper is probably hereditary, Harry thought. Tomorrow he would try to apologise to the man somehow. Only if he gets back in a good mood and is relatively sober though. Then Harry remembered his letter he still held in his hand. He had been so angry that he forgot all about it for a moment. On the envelope his name was written in narrow, cursive writing.

"Dumbledore," whispered Harry and quickly opened the envelope.

_  
Dear Harry,_

_I'm disappointed that you didn't write to me about these latest events. It was irresponsible of you. You haven't been protected in you new place of residence. You could get hurt, if certain persons should find out about it. Of course I wasn't sure if this whole affair was true, but I preformed a paternity charm and it showed very close family ties. Later on, Remus confirmed the whole story._

_I'm very happy that you finally found a home. I know that you’ve always wanted to leave the Dursleys. I hope that you will be happier now. This is your biggest dream come true. You have a father and a brother now. I also entertain the hope that this will help improve your relationship with Severus._  
Don't worry about your safety. I enclosed your new home in a one kilometer diameter anti-magical field. Every person or thing that is located in this area will be prevented from performing magic inside the barrier. I also took some measures to hide the address of your residence and the identity of your biological parents.  
Please refrain from contacting your godfather or your friends. The owls could be captured, and you wouldn't want to endanger anyone, would you?  
Have a nice summer, 

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore  
Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., D. Wiz., X.J.(sorc.), S. of Mag.Q.,_

With every word that Harry read, he became paler. He couldn't believe that this was true. He couldn't believe that Professor Lupin, and probably Sirius as well, knew about everything. They had hidden it from him! He was furious with Dumbledore like never before. Dumbledore had known that the Dursley hated him and didn't help him. And he had forbidden him from contacting his friends. Why should Dumbledore have any say in it anyway. Ant it was true that Tobias was his father. He lived in a lie all his life. 

Suddenly, he felt breathless. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn't bear it in here any longer. He had to get out of here quickly. He ran down the stairs, out of the house, and run as fast as he could. He didn't stop. He passed the park, the streets, and finally came to a forest. After a while all his strength left him. He fell to his knees and started crying as he never had before. 

"I hate them, I hate all of them" he yelled, sat down on the grass, hugged his knees with his arms and started to rock.

"Mum..." he moaned, but when he became aware that he didn't know which woman he was referring to anymore, Harry started crying even harder.

XXX

At the same time:

"Severus, I'm glad that you’re already here. Are you feeling well?" asked Dumbledore. Snape was paler than normal as he came into the office and fell into a chair. 

“Yes, I’m alright," answered the Potions Master in a hoarse voice.

They greetings were always like this after Severus returned from a meeting with Voldemort. They both knew that he wasn’t really alright, but the headmaster didn't linger on the topic.

“Do you have any news, Severus?" 

"The Dark Lord wants the prophecy, but he won't go to the ministry himself and get it as long as he isn’t at his full power. He is also quite content with the Ministry denying his return. Fudge does everything that Lucius asks him to do.”

"That’s not good,” the Headmaster responded. “He’ll want to use Harry to retrieve it. Only the two of them can touch it."

"You should tell him. That arrogant whelp will find out sooner or later, Snape snarled. Better from us then the Dark Lord. You know that he will seek information himself and almost get himself killed while doing so."

"I can't. Let him have some more of his childhood."

"Headmaster, he is spoiled just like his father. Enough is enough. He's barely able to hold up that big head of his.

"Stop that, Severus. You know that it's not true. Harry isn't like James."

"Of course he is just like his father. Lily was good and sweet.” 

"James isn't his father," Dumbledore snapped. 

"Pardon, Albus? I really don't desire jokes at the moment"

"But it's true"

"Of course, that the whelp is Potter’s son. They could be twins! Lily wasn't the type of woman who would cheat on her husband. Dear Merlin! Next you’ll be telling me some far fetched tale about how Potter is my kid, Lily was my wife and for safety of her and the baby she hide that fact, and married Potter, casted charm on the brat so he wouldn't look like me, which will be last only to his fifteen birthday, and you know it because she send it to you with time-charm." 

Dumbledore's eyes sparkled.

"I see that you have very vivid imagination, Severus. You could become a writer, but back to the topic at hand, Lily and James adopted Harry. His mother gave him up the day he was born. As you know, the magical adoption of an infant leads to changes in some of the child’s features to reflect that of both the adoptive parents, so Harry has Lily's eyes and James' hair. 

"This story is really captivating, but I’m rather tired,” Snape sarcastically said. Now, I’m going to my quarters."

Rolling his eyes at the headmaster's antics, Snape turned around and left the office.


	5. Polysemic impressions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank blackprincess92 for correcting this chapter for me ;)
> 
> Pictures of characters:)  
> http://win-the-war-lunacarmesi.tumblr.com/tagged/What-do-the-characters-in-Win-the-War%3A-Consanguinity-look-like%3B)

_Tuesday, July fourth 1995._

Severus Snape woke up with a headache.

 _I'm too old for this,_ he thought.

But he was well aware that it didn't matter what age one was, the Dark Lord's crucio was unbearable painful. Voldemort really hadn't appreciated that the Potions Master hadn't come to the graveyard when he called, and the Dark Lord expressed his displeasure… painfully.

As a potion's master he knew he shouldn't mix a potion for cell regeneration with a pain potion and Firewhiskey, but the day before was incredibly trying and he really wanted to zone out as soon as he could. On the top of all that, Albus had come up with some blabber about Potter.

Lily. She was the sole reason he had sworn to protect the boy no matter what, and now the headmaster was trying to make him believe that the boy-who-lived wasn't her son. He had no idea why Dumbledore would lie about something like that, but it had to be a lie. Magical adoption didn't change character traits, and Potter had definitely inherited James Potter's genes. He acted as arrogant and audacious as him, and Potter strutted around Hogwart as though he owned the school. Maybe he wasn't as cruel as James, but he also had his sidekicks who were there to meet his every whim.

Severus pondered the possibility that Harry Potter wasn't a Potter at all. He shook his head realizing the absurdity of his thoughts. _Surely, somebody would have known about it. Black surely would have known if the boy was Potters._ It was blatantly obvious that Black loved the child and would do anything for him. Hell, he even broke out of the Azkaban for the boy. Severus didn't believe that Black would care about and be so dedicated to the child if he knew that the child wasn't James' son. _Unless,_ continued Severus. _Unless he's really Black's offspring and, until now, he hadn't informed anyone. But that's absurd. Or maybe he's Regulus' child? The second Black brother's body was never found, and there wasn't really proof that he died._

Severus decided to stop wasting his time wandering about Potter, Black, speculating about the true parentage of Harry Potter. His thoughts on the subject were becoming more and more outlandish.

XXX

As usual, Severus spent the first days after the end of the school year completing student reports and documents. Today, he had to pack up and finally go home.

Not many people knew that Severus was a sentimental person. He didn't have too many positive memories, so the few he did have he cherished. He liked to surround himself with things that evoked pleasant memories. That's why when he'd found out that the old Evans' house was for sale after their death, he had to buy it. He'd done everything he could to take out a loan with Gringott's, and the week after the house was his.

Of course Severus didn't know whether or not he would survive the war, so it was possible that he wouldn't pay off the entire mortgage. In that case the ownership would transfer to the Goblins, but that didn't bother him as much because he didn't have anyone who would inherit it.

And today, after many long months, he was going back there.

Many people would be astonished if they heard that summer with all its sun and cheerfulness was his favourite season. The reasons for it were unconventional though unsurprising for a man of his character. The reason was more prosaic: for two full months he wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of bratty dunderheads, or try to teach them anything. Severus could now brew potions all day in the seclusion of his own laboratory, read books, and just relax. He hoped that the Death Eaters' and Order's meetings would be rare as well.

"The Dark Lord should take holidays," thought an annoyed Severus.

XXX

Curled in small ball, Harry trembled from the cold. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying near a line of trees from the forest, and the sun was beginning to rise. He sat up and rubbed his arms to warm himself a little. Then Harry remembered the incident from the day before with dread. Harry began to tremble harder. He hoped that Tobias didn't noticed his disappearance, because otherwise Harry was sure that his father would punish him somehow. From what Tobias had been saying, Harry could fathom that the man was rather strict with Snape, so he didn't reckon that it would be any different with his younger son. Last evening, Tobias had been under the influence of alcohol. Harry could only hope for the one positive result from this; that his father had slept all night and didn't notice Harry's absence.

It was still hard to accept that Tobias truly was his father and that his hated Potions Professor was his brother. All of it was so surreal. Harry knew he should be happy that he had other family alive who weren't the Dursleys, but he couldn't help but feel a little ambivalent about the whole thing. At least now he didn't have to pretend and Tobias won't throw him out because of lies. That was a relief for sure.

By the time Harry found his way back home, the sun had risen completely. At the door, he hesitated for a moment afraid of Tobias' reaction. Eventually, he plucked up his Gryffindor courage and pushed open the door. It was unlocked from his distressed escape from the house the previous night. It didn't really matter one way or the other as there was nothing in the house worth stealing anyway. He went into the kitchen and looked through living room door. On the couch slept Tobias, on the coffee table beside him were a bunch of empty alcohol bottles. There were no changes from the day before. Judging from the fact that the man hadn't gotten up from the couch, that Tobias had not noticed Harry absence. Harry sighed with relief and went upstairs to his bed to sleep a little more.

XXX

When he woke up later on that day it was afternoon. His stomach grumbled and Harry realized that he hadn't eaten since Sunday evening. IF Hermione were here she would have bitten his head off. She was always nagging him about not missing too many meals at Hogwarts. It wasn't his fault that he was rarely hungry and was full soon.

Harry went downstairs and made spaghetti. When he was finishing washing all the dishes along with those left by Tobias on the coffee table Tobias came back home. Sober. Judging from shopping bags, he had gone to the market after work.

"Hello, Harry! How are you?" asked man walking into the kitchen.

Tobias started putting food in cupboards. He took out a chocolate bar from the bag and gave it to Harry.

"Here you are. I bought it for you, 'coz you're too skinny. You can't say I've never buy anything for you," he laughed.

At that moment Harry was really happy. Not because of chocolate, but because his father remembered him and bought him something out of the blue. The boy smiled when he realized that Tobias was probably starting to care about him. If he didn't give a damn about Harry then he wouldn't have thought about him during his shopping. The Dursleys had never spent a pence more then was necessary on him. He had never gotten anything from them unless you counted Uncle Vernon old socks, hangers, and old clothes from Dudley.

Of course Tobias has his flaws. He drinks too much, he's short-tempered, and maybe he isn't as perfect of a father as Arthur Weasley, but Harry was grateful anyway for the opportunity he got. Harry knew that this arrangement was decisively better than the one he was in last summer. He was really glad that his aunt found those adoption papers. Harry was now had a place to call home and that he belonged to someone.

"Thanks _dad_ ," he said, using the word for the first time. Tobias smiled a little, showing yellowish teeth.

"Have you eaten dinner yet?" the man asked.

"Yes, there are leftovers on the stove. I can heat it up for you if you want? I have some time before I have to go to training," Harry asked.

"No, thanks. I told you that we have dinners at work," said Tobias. "Tell me how your training went yesterday. I hope that you aren't a substitute?"

"I don't know. The coach hasn't chosen the first line-up yet," said Harry, but when he noticed slight frown on his father face, he quickly added that, "he told me that I'm fast and I scored a goal, so I think it wasn't bad."

"Good. I'm sure that Severus wouldn't even have been able to make the team. He's a inept."

The boy couldn't agree with the sentiment. Harry could tell a lot about Snape, but he was sure that Snape was not clumsy. At Hogwarts, the Potions Master could be found, by students unlucky to be caught by him, stalking the halls noiselessly at night. Snape seemed to move against all the laws of physics as he walked without sound.

Harry didn't express his opinion aloud. It was Snape, and Harry hated him more than the Dursleys. Indeed, his relatives had humiliated him, but usually it wasn't in public. The professor seemed to derive sadistic pleasure from taunting Harry in public, in front of all his classmates. Even Malfoy was bearable in comparison. Harry only hated one other more, and that was Voldemort. He had never been degraded like he was in Potions class. If it was for his composure, Harry would have started crying in the class. In front of everyone! Sometimes, before the lesson he had felt sick from the thought of the humiliation Snape would put him through. So right now, he wasn't going to defend his brother. It was an unwritten agreement between him and Ron to not defend Snape. Harry did find it little strange and in some ways disturbing, that Tobias talked so negatively about his eldest son, but Harry didn't dwell on why.

XXX

Training started with the coach lecturing them about their fight from yesterday. He talked about how violence is not the answer and that they should find other ways to solve their problems. The man also claimed that of their training sessions weren't tiring enough that the boys still had enough energy to start fights, then he would arrange it so that they would be too tired to barely have the strength to walk home. After that he told them to warm up - ten laps around the field, Dredd and Oasis had to do fifteen. Harry finished second. At first he had big advantage ahead of everyone, but at the end he was breathless and had to slow down. Pele who ran all the time outran him without effort. When the wizard arrived at the finish line, he felt as if his lungs were going to burst! He really felt bad for those who had more laps.

The additional exertion did turn out to be an effective method because for the next two hours Oasis and Dredd were only able to throw each other angry glares.

This time Harry was on Oasis' team, and just like the day before, he played well. He had two assists and scored one goal.

The only unpleasant incident was when Dredd tried to intercept a ball from Harry. The bigger teenager pushed Harry with his elbow while simultaneously managing to trip over his own legs and landing on Harry. The Dredd's body covered the smaller teen's entire body, crushing him to the ground with his face only a few inches above Harry's, smirking nastily.

"Get off," snapped Harry trying to slide out from under the heavy body mass, knowing that he wasn't able to throw him off.

"Oy, Dolly! Don't get stroppy, I didn't deliberately bump into you," whispered the other teen, but his voice told Harry that it was the opposite. "By the way you made mistake yesterday, choosing that twerp," Harry sighed with resignation, knowing already the day before that interceding with Oasis will have consequences. After a moment, when the rest of team run to them, and coach whistled free kick, Dredd let Harry get away.

XXX

"Hey Shortie, are you coming with us to the sandbox?" asked Oasis, pointing at Roo, Pele, and two others boys who Harry hadn't spoken to yet: Duncan and Crochet.

"Where?" - asked Harry.

"To the sandbox. It's near the playground at the park. Right now the kids are at home and the area is ours," explained older boy.

Harry pondered for a moment. Tobias didn't tell him what time he expected him home, and the Harry really wanted to be accepted these teenagers.

"Yeah, I'll go," he decided

Walking alongside the boys, who talked and laughed very loud, Harry observed them carefully. They were casual and relaxed with each other. They were careless, like they hadn't any problems and didn't think about their future. He, as opposed to them, was quiet and calm, but he hoped that in time he too could relax a bit. Here he could be himself and if they liked him, they did so because they liked his personality and not just because he was Harry Potter.

"Okay guys, whip around," directed Oasis, when they got there. The rest of them sat on the edge of a huge sandbox and on the bench located in front of it. Every one of them pulled out some change and give it to him. Fortunately Harry also had some pounds from the change left over from shopping.

"Shortie, come with me, I'll introduce you to Mrs. Maggie."

Harry nodded, agreeing.

Oasis began to call him Shortie since their first training session, and the others picked it up quickly as well. It wasn't that he hated the name, it was somewhat endearing, but it reminded him about his less than imposing height. He tried not to think about it much. Besides, giving nicknames was probably some custom here. Nobody called others by their given names, contrary the Hogwarts where only nicknames and insults like Mudblood or Ferret were used.

It turned out that the shop was only a couple of houses away from his home.

"Afternoon Mrs. neighbour," Oassis called out cheerfully to a saleswoman. It was a gray-haired, plump women in her late fifties.

"More like good evening, Noah," the woman answered smiling. "What can I get you?"

"Six Strongbows and three big packets of crisps."

When Harry heard that, his eyes went wide. He was surprised that they are going to drink, and to make it worse - in a public place where everyone can see them. The last few days had shown him that alcohol had negative effects on people's behaviour. He rather didn't want to try it.

"Maybe, you could show me some ID?" the woman spoke up with a disapproving tone of voice, fully knowing that he didn't have one.

"Mine?" asked the boy, with a mockingly hoarse voice, leaning on the counter. "Or my son?" He finished pointing at Harry.

The elder woman just shook her head, putting the shopping on the counter and asked:

"Who is this young man?"

"It's Harry. Snape's son."

"Nice to meet you ma'am," spoke up Harry for the first time.

"Likewise, sweetheart," she smiled at him, sizing him up. "Tell me why are you consorting with this urchin?"

Harry opened his mouth to answered, when Oasis spoke up:

"Okay, so as always it was nice to talk to you, but we've got to go. The guys are waiting for us."

Then he paid, took shopping, and drew Harry by his sleeve to the exit.

"Goodbye," said young wizard before he was pulled through the door.

XXX

Harry was back at home before midnight. Despite coarse behavior and a complete lack of manners on the part of the boys, Harry had to admit that he liked them. They were very amusing when they talked or joked, sometimes about some absurd situations. Even when they were sparring, nobody huffed, nobody took anything personally. He also changed his mind about Oasis, who was outwardly boorish and offensive, but was really a decent guy and your opinion of him went up considerably once you knew him better.". He was as tactful as Ron, but he was definitively more rude and vulgar. After they split up at the sandpit, Roo, Crochet and Duncan went towards Reddish Road. Pele, Oasis, and Harry took the opposite direction - Spinner's End. At the beginning of the street was street was Pele's house. They stopped for a couple of minutes next to his door, so the slant-eyed boy could finish his story about Irwin's latest save.

"You know Shortie," Oasis started hesitantly, when they were alone, "I'm nothing like my old man." It was the first time since young wizard met him that his facial expression didn't express absolute self-confidence.

Harry shrugged his shoulders and said:

"Well, I didn't lie when I told you that I don't judge people because of how much money they have or who their parents are." He certainly didn't like it when people did that to him, which happened rather often. He looked at Oasis whose posture relaxed a little.

"Okay, but be careful around Dredd, he will try to get revenge 'coz you hurt his pride.

"Well, he is not first and not the least for sure. I'll be fine," returned Harry. Dredd was nothing compared to Voldemort. He'd be merely annoying, like Malfoy. He could deal with the snobbish blond and he could deal with another here as well.

The bigger teenager raised his brows doubtfully, but didn't say anything.

They split up next to Oasis' run-down bungalow, which was located alongside Mrs. Maggie's shop.

Back at home, Harry went into the kitchen to make some tea for himself and was horrified when he saw what it looked like. The entire worktop was messy with something orange. In the sink was a pile of dishes, on the stove dirty pans and pots. On the table were empty bottles, pegs, glasses, and flatware. The floor was covered with shoe prints. It seemed that Tobias invited some of his friends over when Harry was out. Disgusted, trying not to touch anything, he took a clean glass from the cupboard and made the tea. When he was walking to his room, he didn't notice oil spilled over the linoleum and he slipped on it. The noise he made falling down back and braking glass was really loud. He crouched and started gathering up the debris, but then Tobias stumbled to the kitchen and yelled madly:

"What the hell are you doin'?!"

Harry looked up and saw Tobias who was wearing only loose trousers. His chest, which was bare, was well built and muscular. The man was approaching him angrily. Harry involuntarily drew back, but his father after just two steps was beside him, and with one hand pulled him up by his hoodie to a standing position. Harry noticed with increased concern that it didn't take the man much effort. Then he slapped Harry's cheek. The shred of glass which the boy held fell out of his hand, hit the floor, and broke into smaller pieces.

"I'm sorry, I slipped!" Harry tried to explain as he became more and more fearful and confused. He tried to break loose from his father's grip, which apparently angered Tobias even more because he hit the boy the second time, but this time with his fist.

Harry tasted the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

"I'm sorry! I really didn't mean it! Leave me alone!" asked the now completely scared boy. Harry was frantically trying to away from his outraged father.

"What the fuck! Can't you respect that I have to wake up early and go to the work tomorrow morning?! I need the fucking money to keep you!" Tobias pushed him, and Harry went slamming into the wall. You have it too good in here, and you're doin' whatever you want! If you don't let others sleep, you won't sleep either! When I come downstairs tomorrow everything better be clean. The whole house! Or else I'll belt your ass so heavy that you won't sit for the rest of summer!" Tobias finished threateningly.

Then he added: "Do you understand? Everything better be shinin'!" And with that the drunken man went back upstairs.

"Yes," answered Harry and a timid voice, wiping blood from his chin with his sleeve.

Snuffling and with tears in his eyes, he started cleaning.


	6. The Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks blackprincess for beta it!

_  
Thursday, June sixth 1995_

Harry woke up just before midday. Once again he had dreamt about what took place in the graveyard in Little Hangleton, but this time his dream had changed. He was walking down some hall, at the end of which was a closed door. Every time he approached the end, he immediately woke up with a prickling ache in his scar. Additionally, the whole left side of face was strangely stiff. Then he remembered the incident from the night before. He was angry at Tobias, that he hit him, but even more at himself. How could he be so careless? It is no wonder that his father was mad. If he woke up the Dursleys in the middle of the night and breaking dish, he would be locked in his cupboard or room for a week without food. Harry hoped that Tobias would forget what Harry had done. Harry subconsciously knew that the man shouldn't lay a hand on him, and he especially _knew_ that it wasn’t his fault that the floor was slippery from oil, but it didn't change the fact that he felt that the events of the previous night were due to his carelessness. He decided he would be more cautious in the future. He didn't want Tobias to be angry with him, until yesterday everything was really good. Harry would rather that they forget about last night or just pretend that they didn't happen at all. 

He went to the bathroom to take a shower and with great anxiety, looked in the mirror. His left cheek was purple-green and his upper lip cracked and puffy. He had to figure something out before training because he didn't want the guys to see him like this. He went downstairs, pulled out some ice from the freezer, wrapped it in foil, and put it on his hurt cheek. Then he went back to his room and lay on his bed. Maybe he would be able to brew ointment for bruises, but he didn't want to risk brewing potions in the house. He could picture how furious Tobias would be if he blow up the whole house. He snorted at that thought. Harry exaggerated. Blowing up cauldrons was Neville's specialty, and Harry almost never did that. That didn’t mean that it wouldn't happen this time though. 

xxx

Harry rubbed his eyes and heard the increasingly familiar creak, which he was starting to associate with the opening of the front door. Harry was feeling tired, when he looked out the window the sun had already traveled to the other side of the house, and the ice Harry had placed on his cheek had long since turned to ice. 

A moment later, Tobias knocked the door of his room, which Harry took as a good sign. He rather expected that the man would barge in without knocking.

"Come in," said Harry with a tense voice.

"Hi," the man greeted him unsurely, entering the small and poorly furnished bedroom.

"Hi," Harry returned. 

"Harry, listen... Maybe I overreacted a little yesterday," the man muttered apologetically.

"Don't hold it against me."

"Oh," replied the young wizard, looking at Tobias, who looked remorseful.

"You know that I work hard and I was tired. You woke me up and you know that I have to get up early in the morning, right?”

"Yeah," muttered Harry.

"How could Harry not forgive him if he was himself partially to blame. Besides, it was the first time an adult apologized him for anything. It had never happened before, neither at the Dursleys nor at school, where the headmaster employed incompetent teachers where Harry repeatedly came close to losing his life or, in case of Lockhart, memory. Snape had not once apologized for humiliating him in class. No adult ever admitted a mistake.

"What do you say at going to the pizzeria? You know a father-son outing?” Asked Tobias. 

Harry agreed without a thought. He had never eaten pizza. 

***

Even though Severus Snape had moved from Hogwarts to Guildford two days ago, he didn't have time to unpack until now. The day before, he was making the house livable after his half year absence. However, that afternoon his presence was required at Grimmauld Place for the Order meeting. The meeting was the same as always - they didn't make any plans for any action. Albus decided, that they should wait and observe. Just as Snape was heading back home, he got call from the Dark Lord, and of course after that, he had to once again go to Hogwarts where he could fill the Headmaster in on Voldemort's latest plans. He hadn’t gotten to bed until the wee hours of the morning.

After he put every one of his things on its place he decided to go shopping at Mrs. Maggie's shop. She worked there for almost thirty years. When he was a little boy she had given him the occasional lollipop or candy. After many years, after already living at the old Evans' house for years, when he went to her shop after his long absence from town, she's always filled him in on what was going on in the neighborhood. It wasn't that he liked to gossip, but he felt more secure when he had information about his surroundings.

Leaving the house, he noticed a person who he really had no great desire to look at. Unfortunately, the proximity guaranteed that he had seen his father more often then he would like to. Usually, Tobias was going to or from work, or at the shop with a beer in hand. Right now, some child was walking beside him.  
 _Probably some brat of Tobias by another lover,_ he thought. He was irritated at the moronic woman that she would leave her child with such a human being as his father. He was too aggressive and when something angered him, when something wasn't going his way, his father stooped to violence.

Despite the fact that the child’s clothes looked new they didn't look respectable. The wardrobe speaks a lot of its owner, and how children looked, reflected on their parents. In Severus’ book, clothes like the child was wearing gave the impression of disdain for other people. Suddenly, he felt appreciation that his Slytherins respected his wishes regarding their appearance. Without unnecessary complaints he was able to enforce their neat and trim look. It was also probably a consequence of most of them being pure blood, brought up to care about appearance, and the rest tried imitated them.

But when Severus heard the voice of the child from afar, he was struck dumb. It was none other than Harry, the-boy-who-despite-any-odds-still-lived-to-agonize-him-even-at-summer-Potter. Why he didn't recognize the boy at once, was probably due to his lack of those hideous glasses, which usually covered his irritating face. On top of that, Potter was hiding his messy hair, and of course the companion who was at this very moment with him. There is no way that these two people who aroused such negative emotions in him could appear together before him. It didn’t help that the child really didn't look like a soon-to-be-fifth year. He was well aware that Potter was a little short for his age, but he looked like an eleven year old!

Suddenly, Severus recollected the conversation he had with Dumbledore two days ago.

_What a sick joke!_ What could he want to accomplish by this! he thought, starting to shake with fury at that powerful wizard and his blasted machinations, at Tobias that he agreed to take Potter, and at Potter that he had to find himself, as always, in the center of havoc. 

_Bloody child!_

They were nearing Severus. The annoying voice of Potter was clearer with each passing second, and his father made an impression that he was listening at what the whelp was saying. No, Severus wasn't jealous about attention that Tobias was devoting to the stranger child, attention he had never given to Severus, or at least any positive attention. Now, the Potions Master felt only a grudge and repulsion for the man. The drunk was damaging his own and the lives of everyone around him.

Nevertheless, Severus wondered what the headmaster offered or how much he paid Tobias for babysitting Potter, and first and foremost, why?

When they were in front of him, Tobias diverted his eyes from the child, and their gazes met. Surprised to see him, the older man held his hand out and stopped the small teenager. Tobias said:

"Harry, meet your brother, Severus." 

Equally surprised Harry looked up.

When Severus saw the boy’s bruised face, he was even more furious. One of his most hated things was the physical abuse of children, even of those he couldn't stand. He himself maybe wasn’t excessively nice to them, but he would never hit any of them.

"I know him, he teaches me potions," responded boy trying to sound indifferent, but Severus could hear some tension in his voice. Tobias narrowed his eyes at the young wizard.

"He's not my brother. I don't know why the headmaster told you such a tale, but there is no way that the boy is related to you," snapped Severus. "And you, Potter, will come with me," he added in a voice that brooked no argument.

"You don't have any right to take him anywhere." Tobias said putting his hand on Harry's shoulder. Severus saw that the boy flinched a little from the sudden touch. Tobias again turned to his older son.

“And what right do you have?! Potter come here and don't argue!" snarled Snape even more irritated.

"But I didn't say anything yet," muttered Harry under his breath, but didn't move.

He wasn't going to anywhere with his teacher.

"He's my son, and you can't take him away from me! I did get guardianship over him. Go away or I else I promise you that he won't be back at your school!" Snarled Tobias.

Harry stirred nervously at hearing that.

"Potter, do you want to find out what he is really like? But I see that he gave you a foretaste of what is to come." Severus said in mocking smile, though he was inwardly steamed with anger at his father who dared hit the boy.

"You don't have any right to talk like that,” the older man hissed through clenched teeth.

"I don't have a right? Me!?" yelled Severus.

"Severus, I've changed. I won't hurt him."

"You've said that before and it’s still lies judging by the bruises on his face. How- "

"It wasn't him," lied Harry, stopping the Potions Master midsentence. "I was fighting with some guy. Listen, my father, “he used that word despite it still feeling strange in his mouth, to emphasize their relation, "cares about me and up to now, he's treated me a million times better than you ever have. So why would I go with someone who hates me? The feeling is mutual, anyway “–Harry hissed looking at his professor, furious that he wanted to take away from him the one thing that he had dreamed of since he was found on the Dursley's doorstep. 

Severus involuntarily took step back, surprised by the venom in the child's voice, which reminded him of the Dark Lord's hissing. For just one second he felt a thrill of fear at the sight of fierce and hate filled green eyes, which reminded him of two killing curses. He was well aware that he didn't arouse any positive emotions in the boy. Anger, open dislike - yes of course, but he really didn't expected so much hate, aggression, and hostility.

After a second he came to his senses and snapped furiously at the outright lie and pitiful attempt to defend Tobias.

"Don't you dare lie, Potter! I don't believe you.”

"And how's that my problem?" Harry shrugged his shoulders, trying to look calm.

"Watch your mouth you little, dumb, arrogant-" 

"Severus" Tobias stopped him. "Don’t insult him," he hissed angrily. Don't even try to threaten him. Just leave us alone. Don't butt in, it's not your business" Tobias added, and  
then he turned to Potter: " Let's go Harry. What do you say to some ice cream after pizza? Hmm? " The man asked probably trying to prove that he really is a good father

"Sure dad," Harry's eyes shone with happiness. 

Tobias passed his older son not saying anything else and Harry followed him, leaving the furious Potions Master behind.

***

Still furious, Severus did not wait for permission and marched into Dumbledore's office.

"Albus, what are you playing at!?" yelled the Potion's Master, hitting the desktop with his palms.

Sitting behind the desk, the Headmaster looked at him from behind his glasses.

"I'm sorry Severus, but I don't know what you are talking about. Tell me what's the matter?" The older man said calmly.

"Like hell you don't know! It's about Potter!" snapped Snape, even more enraged by Dumbledore's composure.

"What about him? Really Severus you should leave him be. It's summer. How could he get under your skin now? You didn't even see him," he smiled, his blue eyes sparkled happily.

"Don't pretend to be innocent! Why did you send him to my father? What did you think?! Do you have any idea how is he?!" With every question Severus’ voice became stronger.

"It wasn't my decision. I didn't get any say in this matter.” responded Dumbledore. 

The calmness in his voice infuriated Snape.

"Oh cut it out! What he is doing at Spinner's End then?” questioned Severus. 

"I told you that recently discovered information revealed that Lily and James adopted Harry. Tobias is his biological father." The headmaster explained him as if Severus were a small child.

"You're lying! It's not possible, Dumbledore" contradicted Severus.

"It's true. I preformed the paternity charm myself."

"And would you care to enlighten me of why you didn't inform me about this earlier?" bridled the younger man.

"I don't know why I should. You don't have a good relationship with neither Harry or with your father. And you didn't ask who his father at our last meeting." Dumbledore explained reproving, but Severus was sure that he noticed some glint of amusement in his blue eyes.

"And maybe you were afraid that I will put the lid on my father's guardianship over him?

"As I told you before, neither I nor you would been able to do anything in this matter. Tobias is his father and legal guardian. By signing the muggle papers, the magical ones were automatically signed also under the condition that nobody forced the Dursleys to abdicate their rights over Harry. We can't do anything, and even if we could, we won't.

"Albus, Tobias will kill him," warned Snape, trying to calm himself.

"Don't exaggerate, give him a chance. He changed," responded the older wizard. 

"And how could you know that!? That bastard will never change. Do you really want to make the child's life hell? My father doesn't tolerate any mistake!" shouted Severus.

Dumbledore smiled, "I talked to him. Anyway, wasn't it you who said that Harry is a spoiled, arrogant prince? And it would do him some good to have some discipline?”

_Again that bloody smile, thought Snape furiously._

"Can't you understand? He will _abuse_ him? You have to do something," Snape pleaded with the Headmaster. 

"I'm sorry Severus, but I really have tied hands. Harry has to stay there until he becomes a legal adult. Do you know what would happen if Harry Potter was in the custody and care of the Minister, or worse some Deatheater? Can you imagine what Lucius Malfoy would do with him if Harry entered his house? No, Severus. There isn't any other choice. He must stay there. And it would be best if nobody knew about his whereabouts and his relation to you," the headmaster said with sharp voice.” Anyway, I didn't know that you cared so much about him," Dumbledore added, the amusement came back to his eyes.

"The fact that the boy is Potter has nothing to do with it. It is simply that I, in contrast to you, am not going to be calm and do nothing when my students are maltreated in their own homes!" yelled the furious man, not understanding how Dumbledore could sit in his office, eat his lemon drops, and not even try to do anything to help.

The headmaster leaned his hands on the desktop. The air in the room suddenly became chilly. 

"I thought that you of all people wouldn't resent the fact that I'm willing to give second chances," hissed headmaster. 

Severus only looked at him with a furious expression, turned around and left the office, slamming the door on his way out. 

***

After his return home from his outing with Tobias, Harry went into his bedroom and threw himself on his bed, his face shining with a rare wide smile. He'd never been so happy before. It came close to the time when Sirius offered to live with Harry. Harry was so grateful that Aunt Petunia found those papers. There was probably nothing better that could every happen to him. He felt some kind of affiliation and it was the best feeling in the world. First, his father stopped Snape’s rant of insults. It was the first time somebody had ever defended him. Just that would be enough to make Harry painfully appreciative. Next, Tobias had taken him to the pizzeria. The restaurant wasn't high quality, but the pizza that they had ordered was tremendous. Now he knew why Dudley had to have it at least twice a week. He was so full that he didn't feel like eating ice-cream, so Tobias took him to the pub nearby where, it turned out, he had gone pretty often. He talked for a couple of minutes with the bartender and ordered beer for himself and a coke for Harry. In the farthest corner of the room there were billiard tables, so the man decided to teach Harry how to play. The young wizard had to admit that his father was really good at it. For the next two hours they played seven games, which Harry win only one, but nevertheless, Tobias told him that he had inherited his talent from him. 

It was the best evening of his life. He was so happy that he finally had someone who cared about him and not the Boy- Who- Lived, that he turned a blind eye to Tobias' flaming temper and overuse of alcohol. It wasn’t Tobias’ fault after all that it was his nature.


End file.
